I'm not much on rods less than 6'9" in length---I have a 6'9" orvis bought on E-bay---was in bad shape---no tube no sock---but it casts real good--i cleaned it up---ferrules are tight--it is a caramel color--if the rod could talk I'm sure it would say thanks--Darrell came into the store today with a rod he ordered from a rodmaker out west--the rodmaker is well known--the rod was a 5'5" cane rod called a "Brookie"---this was the 1st cane rod I have seen and had in hand that was a turn-off.It was so short that it felt stiff-even clubby--the grip was about 4" long, making it just right for a New Zealand pigme---casting the rod was even worse for me---granted Darrell could cast it with relative ease and accuracy--but I just could'nt get into the sawed off feel of it---for some reason I was master of tailing loops with it---I think it is being marketed as a GSMNP fishermans dream---just right for brook trout streams---would be interested in" your'alls" opinion of rod lengths relative to GSMNP

my buddy has a 6ft Graphite 2wt and its alright, he likes it but now wishes he had something longer.not so much the casting aspect but line control. even on the smaller streams it aint worth while. I feel most anything under 7ft anit gonna cut it. Most of my fishing is done with a 7'9" 3wt and I love the thing but am soon swithing to longer rod.

I know of what you speak... for me, and it just Ralph's opinion... the smallest rod that I have any real use for is a 7ft, 4wt; and the vast majority of my fishing is with an 8ft, 4/5wt. Yes, I've got 2 rods shorter than 7ft... I've used them maybe twice in a Rhoddy thicket. Doesn't mean that they're not good rods... but I just don't seem to have a use for them.

For fishing in the Eastern US a 7-8 ft, 4/5wt will handle about 90% of your fishing... and if you are going to spend some "real" money on a bamboo rod, doesn't it make sense to plop your bucks down on what you are REALLY going to use?

The 2/3 wt game just doesn't compute for me... I'm sorry, but the few ultra light rods like that which I have tried are so fussy about the line they use that you really have to search out the correct line... and then if you do get a real fish on the rod you're scared to death you're going to break something.

It's not for nothing that the rod weights that sold in the old days were: HDH, HCH, IFI (Roughly DT6, DT7, DT4 silk lines all which cast like one weight lower plastic... i.e. DT5, DT6, DT3) But then the folks back then didn't waste a lot of money... did they?